the chilling story of the crime that shocked the United States

During the investigation, few elements leaked to the American media. Now that the man suspected of killing four students in Idaho on November 13 was arrested, several revelations were made. The crime, which occurred in a residence located off the campus of the University of Idaho, was allegedly committed in the space of just 25 minutes before the murderer managed to escape. According to the “New York Postwhich cites the police report made public on Thursday, the killings took place between 4 a.m. and 4:25 a.m.

A few days after this tragedy, the authorities had indicated that they believed that the killer had slipped inside this house by a door giving directly on the first floor. While two other roommates slept, Ethan Chapin, 20, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21 were stabbed to death. In their report, police say that at around 4:12 a.m. Xana was still alive, with data from her phone indicating she had been on the TikTok app at the time. A few minutes earlier, she had had a meal delivered to her via the DoorDash platform, her last contact with another person before being killed.

“There is someone here”

The two surviving roommates, who gave the alert the next morning after discovering the four bodies lying in their blood, quickly provided all the information they had to the police. It was initially said that they were asleep at the time of the attack. But in the report, it is explained that Dylan Mortensen heard, around 4 a.m., his friend Kaylee playing with his dog in his bedroom upstairs. But a few moments later, this same roommate would have heard her comrade say aloud “there is someone here”. Dylan Mortensen would then have opened the door of his room to check that everything was fine, and would not have seen anyone.

But, the latter would have checked a second time after having this time heard Xana Kernodle crying in her room. A few seconds later, she would have heard the voice of a man who seemed to say to her “It will be fine, I will help you”. According to the police, however, this voice could have come from the TikTok that the student was watching at the time.

At the beginning of December, the medical examiner in charge of the file confirmed that at least one of the victims bore injuries showing that she tried to defend herself. She also described the weapon as a “large fixed blade knife”.

A masked man

At 4:17 a.m., a neighbour’s surveillance camera picked up ‘distorted audio’ of what sounded like a ‘groan followed by a loud thump’. At the same time, Dylan Mortensen came out of her room a third time and found herself facing “a masked man wearing only black”. She described this character as a man about 1.78m tall, and athletic, but not very muscular. She told police about “her bushy eyebrows as her nose and mouth were covered by the mask”. The intruder would then have passed right next to her, while she was “in shock, unable to move”.

However, the call to the police was not made until several hours later, just before noon, after several other students came to the residence, while the two roommates were in shock. The murder weapon was not found, however a sheath of the knife used during this macabre night was left behind. It is on this object that the investigators found enough DNA of the suspect to go back to him, despite all the precautions taken by the latter.

Another determining element in the investigation: the white car filmed near the house in Moscow where the crime took place. This vehicle was seen at 4:20 a.m. leaving the residence area at high speed. This same car had been filmed by the surveillance cameras of a service station.

Bryan Kohberger, 28, was arrested in Pennsylvania, where he was from. Himself a student, he majored in criminology at Washington State University, located just 15 minutes by car from the scene of the four murders, in Idaho. The investigation report states that after the crimes, a phone belonging to him was geolocated at the scene between 9:12 a.m. and 9:21 a.m. the same day. This phone had also been geolocated in the same place twelve times before the fatal November 13, showing that the suspect seemed to have premeditated his act and targeted the victims.

The motive for the crime has still not been confirmed. The suspect, prosecuted for murder, was extradited from Pennsylvania to Idaho.